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Microbial metabolic exchange—the chemotype-to-phenotype link

Nature Chemical Biology volume 8, pages 26–35 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

The function of microbial interactions is to enable microorganisms to survive by establishing a homeostasis between microbial neighbors and local environments. A microorganism can respond to environmental stimuli using metabolic exchange—the transfer of molecular factors, including small molecules and proteins. Microbial interactions not only influence the survival of the microbes but also have roles in morphological and developmental processes of the organisms themselves and their neighbors. This, in turn, shapes the entire habitat of these organisms. Here we highlight our current understanding of metabolic exchange as well as the emergence of new technologies that are allowing us to eavesdrop on microbial conversations comprising dozens to hundreds of secreted metabolites that control the behavior, survival and differentiation of members of the community. The goal of the rapidly advancing field studying multifactorial metabolic exchange is to devise a microbial 'Rosetta stone' in order to understand the language by which microbial interactions are negotiated and, ultimately, to control the outcome of these conversations.

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Figure 1: Microbial interactions.
Figure 2: Percentages of the predicted ORFs used in microbial interactions.
Figure 3: Chemical diversity of quorum-sensing molecules.
Figure 4: Chemical diversity of metabolic exchange factors.
Figure 5: Cell differentiation of Bacillus subtilis at the colony and cellular levels.
Figure 6: Ecological roles of microbial metabolic exchange.
Figure 7: MALDI-IMS links chemistry to bacterial phenotypes.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge J. Yang, W. Moree and C. Rath (University of California, San Diego) for providing critical reviews of the manuscript and E. Shank (Harvard Medical School) for insightful discussions. The P.C.D. laboratory is supported by US National Institutes of Health grants GM094802, GM086283 and AI095125 and by the Beckman Foundation. The K.P. laboratory is supported by US National Institutes of Health grants GM057045 and AI095125.

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  1. Vanessa V Phelan and Wei-Ting Liu: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of California, San Diego, California, USA

    Vanessa V Phelan & Pieter C Dorrestein

  2. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, San Diego, California, USA

    Wei-Ting Liu & Pieter C Dorrestein

  3. Division of Biological Sciences, University of California, San Diego, California, USA

    Kit Pogliano

  4. Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, California, USA

    Pieter C Dorrestein

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Phelan, V., Liu, WT., Pogliano, K. et al. Microbial metabolic exchange—the chemotype-to-phenotype link. Nat Chem Biol 8, 26–35 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.739

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